sporting our borrowed headdresses to enter the Jumeirah Mosque.
our guide explaining the washing process before entering the mosque
the beautiful ceiling
Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding - Jumeirah Mosque
lunch at limetree cafe!! they make the best chai citrus drink! i asked them to sell me their chai, but they politely declined...
view from s and a's appt. I apologize for the poor photoshopping. Nice beach eh? All reclaimed (as they do live on the one of the palm “leaves”). Note the wee white building in the middle is the Burj al Arab, and the houses on left are multi million dollar residences are reputed to be owned by the celebrities and the such. That area to the right is all under construction, that’s where they are going to put the QE2, a cruise ship they will dock and convert into a hotel and luxury accommodations.
One of the beautiful stores in Wafi, a mall... (and the first of the 5 i was to visit in 4 days!). with temperatures reaching 40+ during the day, i was happy to be walking around in the air conditioned malls, thank you very much.
dinner at Wafi's. the jars are part of a giant well
a hall at wafi. there is an indoor souk (middle eastern market) in the mall selling things i can never afford.
this place was so nice i almost wanted facial hair. almost.
the gold souk. dubai has wonderful souks (spice souk, textile souk, etc) in an older part of town.
one of the passenger ferries across the dubai creek which runs alongside the souks.
one of the many workers loading ships bound for places like iran, india etc...
the gentleman on the right insisted i take a picture with him and his friends. i happily obliged.
cafe creekside.
more boats. s and i briefly considered hoping on one to iran, and then we contemplated the implications of that.
lunch at home.
yes, another mall. this one is a beautifully themed Ibn Battuta Mall, with 6 courts, India, China, Persia, Tunisia, Andalusia, and Egypt. They are the 6 areas that the famous explorer, Ibn Battuta travelled in the 1300's.
where east meets west, and 800 year old explorers find themselves sipping american coffee in a mall in dubai. vivre la capitalisme!
i think this was india. i really liked the green backlight on the elephant, made me feel that much more like i was "there".
persia? tunisia? oi.
china. or china in dubai 800 years ago in a themed mall.
Atlantis Hotel, the temporary home of Sammy the shark... captured sans permit. Until they find Tommy his paperworked brother, i'd imagine he'll be floating with his tanked entourage for a little while longer.
i don't know what this is... and i'm not even going to hazard to guess. there was this really serious looking Emerati sitting on a bench right in front of the thing, and it was such a great photo-op but i chickened out.... but you can just imagine...
faux ruins and a handful of the 65,000 fish in the tank.
more themed goodness.
yes, another mall... this one had a canal that we could partake of in a boat if we donated our kidneys or the financial equivalent. did i mention dubai is expensive?
poster for ski dubai (and yes, it is also in a mall) - the verbage on the bottom says :you'll never really leave". well, at $60.00 cdn for 2 hours, you betcha i left, but not without some photos and a t-shirt. On the other hand, I will never whine about the lift ticket prices in Whistler ever again.
another poster for ski dubai... ironically, it was remarkably a lot like skiing on my ironing board.
ski dubai also boasts a tube park!
i don't know what is better, the sign or my ski suit. this begs the question, which environment?
my first time on an escalator to a ski slope. such momentous occasions deserve photographic evidence.
the black run from the top. we got there right when it opened, so we had the place to ourselves, like our own private indoor ski hill. another first for me, they had photographers that snapped away as we skied. we could buy these pics in the gift shop, like disneyland.
s modeling the ever flattering ski suit half way down the hill...
ok, doesn't this make you want to ski here! they are having so much fun snowplowing in formation!
the ski chalet, complete with flat screened fires!
s and f.
a couple of window cleaners on susi and alistair's apartment building. i figured if i ran out of money in dubai, i could always moonlight as a window cleaner.
bubbletoes! last swim before i go... one great thing about staying on the palms was that i got to swim everyday in the gulf... well, the water was so warm it was bathwater... but i got used to it!
here's a photo for finn.
